The Korean manufacturer LG already has a wide range of high-quality televisions with OLED or LCD lighting. Now LG will be presenting ten new models at a virtual booth in mid-January – because the CES, the world’s largest trade fair for entertainment electronics, which traditionally takes place in Las Vegas in January, takes place only online this time.
In addition to new devices with organic light-emitting diodes, the Koreans are using mini-LEDs as background lighting and call the technology QNED. That creates confusion. Finally, Samsung also offers QLED. Other manufacturers such as Philipps or TCL also use mini-LEDs without naming them with a special abbreviation.
But QNED is nothing new. Behind it are “Quantum Dots” and “Nano Cells”. In essence, both mean very small light-emitting diodes for the background lighting of the screen. This is exactly what QLED or the name Triluminos at Sony means. There are subtle differences between the manufacturers, but these only interest physicists.
The mini-LEDs are replacing the normal-sized LEDs previously used on LCD screens. The advantage: With local dimming, i.e. the targeted switching on and off of areas of the screen, smaller parts and sharper edges can be switched. Mini-LEDs are therefore always installed over the entire surface. The use of mini-LEDs is not worthwhile for inexpensive edge mounting of LEDs for entry-level televisions. It shows its strengths when a fast image processor signals for every partial image at every point on the screen whether light-emitting diodes should be on or off. This reduces the effects of overexposure on the edge between light and dark areas of the image. The picture looks much more contrasty.
This means that mini LEDs compete with the still more expensive OLED screens. They get by without backlighting, as the individual elements are already illuminated and can also be completely switched off. Mini-LEDs cannot appear as dark as organic light-emitting diodes, but they always offer HDR quality, i.e. very high contrast values. And they have a higher maximum brightness than OLED, which makes them more suitable for daylight. The QLED / QNED technology thus combines the advantages of LCD and OLED technology. Devices with mini LEDs therefore currently offer the best compromise between image quality and price.
But two other techniques are already in the starting blocks. One was presented at the CES in January 2020 by the Chinese manufacturer Hisense, which has worked its way up from a low-cost provider to the quality segment. Hisense has been turning away from OLEDs since last year and relies on so-called dual-cell LCD technology for high-quality devices. Two LCD layers are placed one on top of the other. One provides the color signals with small quantum dots, the other takes care of the background lighting as a grayscale panel. A very fast processor has to split the information for each pixel into a color value and a gray value and send it to the two layers. Hisense promises slightly better contrast values here than with mini LEDs. Hisense plans to present its first market-ready device in a few days.
Samsung had already presented prototypes of a television with so-called micro-LEDs in 2019. They are not necessarily smaller than mini-LEDs, but like OLEDs, they do not need a backlight because they light up by themselves. Due to the simpler circuit technology, very large screens can easily be built from several modules. The production of very small micro-LEDs is not yet fully developed. When such a living room TV from Samsung will come has not yet been decided.
The mini-LED, on the other hand, is mature. It could put OLED televisions in distress, especially if, after Samsung and Hisense, other manufacturers should shut down the production of devices with organic light-emitting diodes. The high-contrast screen technology could also establish itself in high-quality monitors and large tablets. According to a DigiTimes report, Apple will likely introduce a 12.9-inch model of the iPad Pro with mini LEDs in the first quarter of this year. Since the iPad is often used as a movie screen, improved contrast is definitely a reason to buy. It remains to be seen whether background lighting with many dimming zones will bring visible improvements on a smartphone with its comparatively small screen area. Such an upgrade should already be planned for an upcoming iPhone.
But it is not worth waiting for new techniques. TV sets with sophisticated LCD technology, ultra-high resolution and the attractive 65-inch screen format from established manufacturers such as Samsung, LG, Sony, but also Hisense or the smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi are usually a good choice and currently only cost between 600 and 900 euros.
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